Oakland will be hard pressed to keep its teams

Oakland’s Oracle Arena has 72 luxury suites, gourmet food options, transit and freeway access, and 19,000 seats with decent sightlines in a building whose interior was gutted and rebuilt in 1997. “It’s a perfectly good facility; I would say it’s in the middle of the NBA as far as the quality of the facility,” said Roger Noll, a Stanford University professor emeritus who specializes in the economics of sports.

So what are the missing elements that have compelled the Golden State Warriors to bust a move across the bay?

One, of course, is the aura of a waterfront site and the prestige of a San Francisco address. The other is the opportunity to start anew in preparing a structure for the technology and amenities that will upgrade the event experience for customers and profit opportunities for the team. A downtown arena also offers far more economic spinoff potential, for a team and a city.

This is where professional sports venues have headed, according to Noll. Thirty years ago, stadiums and arenas were being renovated or torn down to meet the owners’ demands for luxury boxes to market to corporate clients. Then came the great expansion of shops and restaurants attached to sports venues.

Now the focus is on the technological bells and whistles geared toward high-end customers. The 49ers are making exactly that push toward state-of-the-art technology – and stratospheric prices – in their $1 billion Santa Clara stadium. Licenses for the rights to prime seats are being offered at up to $80,000 each.

“This is part of a stronger trend in society,” Noll said. “Everything that is doing well – and sports is in that category – has oriented itself increasingly to the top of the income distribution.

“What sports is doing is making the live entertainment for the rich people, and the rest of us can watch it on television. That’s the basic business model.”

Rick Welts, the Warriors president, insisted that the new arena would have seats for “the whole spectrum” of fans.

“Are there going to be some extremely expensive seats that have better amenities than the Warriors ever had to offer because of the facility that we’re playing in? Absolutely, yes,” Welts said. As he rightly noted, the owners will be making “a gigantic investment” of $500 million-plus in the arena, which will not receive any direct public subsidy.

But he emphasized that the NBA today requires each team to offer at least 500 seats at $10 each on game day, and he expected that something-for-everyone approach to continue in the new arena.

“We’re not going to make this a place that is out of the reach of the average fan,” Welts said. “That would defeat the purpose of what we’re trying to accomplish here.”

But it is noteworthy – and perhaps smart from the team’s perspective – that the Warriors have offered no hint about the pricing structure in the new arena. The 49ers’ planned move to Santa Clara did not really generate much public outrage until it became clear that some of their most senior season ticket holders had no chance of affording a comparable seat in the new stadium.

So what is the technology that might dazzle fans when they arrive at the San Francisco arena on opening night in 2017?

Chances are, it hasn’t been invented.

“This arena’s going to open in 5 1/2 years, right?” Welts said. “Five and a half years ago the iPhone didn’t exist. That’s a big challenge, to look into the future that far with technology and to get it right.”

A taste of the future can be found in the improvements the Warriors will install in Oracle Arena in the interim. Digital signage that will allow custom, revolving advertising. An opportunity for fans in the arena to upgrade their seats – for a fee – via their cell phones. A chance to order and purchase concessions while watching the game.

The professional sports experience has come a long way from the $25 million investment that Oakland and Alameda County made to build the utilitarian Coliseum complex in the 1960s. The renovations of the 1990s are a distant memory to the three major sports franchises that have played there for more than four decades. The Warriors are leaving and the A’s are dying to bolt for San Jose. Only the Raiders have indicated that they would like to stay at the Coliseum site, but they, too, want a new stadium.

Oakland’s plans for a “Coliseum City” development of sports venues, retail stores, restaurants and a hotel remain in an embryonic stage.

With its weak political leadership and comparatively thin corporate base – and the escalating expectations of these venues, which Californians justly expect to be privately financed – Oakland will be hard pressed to stay in the professional sports game.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt about it,” said Don Perata, who as an Alameda County supervisor was a key player in the controversial 1995 Raiders deal. “There’s absolutely no way Oakland and Alameda County can compete with where the market’s been going. I think the only shot they have is with the Raiders. I don’t see how they do it.”

Can Oakland still compete in this new era?

The city that celebrated world championships in three sports in the 1970s

is in danger of losing all three teams. A status report:

Warriors

What’s wrong: The Oracle Arena, which underwent a thorough renovation in 1997, lacks some of the technological innovations and upscale amenities found in more modern facilities.

What they want: To build a privately financed, state-of-the-art arena in San Francisco.

Upshot: The team and the city are determined to make the waterfront project happen, but nothing is easy in San Francisco.

A’s

What’s wrong: The ballpark’s simple, open ambience and view of the hills was lost when the towering east stands (“Mount Davis”) were constructed after the 1995 return of the Raiders.

What they want: To build a baseball-only ballpark in downtown San Jose. Those plans have been stymied to date by the Giants‘ claim of territorial rights.

Upshot: Owner Lew Wolff has almost gone out of his way to alienate the East Bay fan base, as reflected in dismal attendance.

Raiders

What’s wrong: The last dual-sport stadium in the NFL is showing its age and has lousy geometry for football, with too few seats along the sidelines and too many seats with obstructed views.

What they want: Owner Mark Davis’ stated first choice is to build a new football-only stadium as part of a redevelopment of the Coliseum site, perhaps with restaurants, retail and hotels.

Upshot: It’s hard to finance a football-only stadium anywhere – and all the more challenging in Oakland.